Krao was born in 1876 in Laos, then part of Thailand but then called Siam. She was born with a chromosomal abnormality called hypertrichosis, which according to Árnastofnun is called hyperhairing in Icelandic.
Krao had extremely thick hair on his face, but a thin layer of hair covered his body. extra thoracic vertebra, extra ribs, long cheek pouches, hypermobility in his joints, and missing cartilage in his nose and ears.
True and lie?
The legend says that Krao belonged to a primitive tribe, Kraos-monk, and that all the members of the tribe were well-hardened and lived in the trees. The tribe was said to know no fire and lived on raw fish, fruits, and nuts.
Whether this is true, however, is hard to say.
Krao and his parents were kidnapped in January 1881, when Krao was only five years old.
The men behind the theft were explorer Carl Bock and an anthropologist named George Shelly.
However, this was not the company’s original plan.
According to Shelly’s account, Brock was traveling through Burma in 1874 in search of an extremely large tribe.
Farini and Krao
“freak”
The expedition was sponsored by a man named William Leonard Hunt who called himself Guillermo Antonio Farini and was a great adventurer. For example, Farini was the first white man to cross the Kalahari Desert and survive.
He was a well-known director and playwright. Farini also organized exhibitions where, among other things, he showed all kinds of “weird people” or “monsters” as they were then called.
But he didn’t find the big ones anywhere, but managed to meet the king in Burma. At court, he met unusually hairy children and discovered that they were the grandchildren of the Kraos-monk couple, whom the King of Siam had sent as a gift to his then colleague.
“Freak” by Farini.
Brock was impressed and offered the King $100,000 for the children, which was a lot of money at the time, but the King flatly refused. Namely, he believed his empire would come to an end if the Kraos people left the land.
The king said they could take care of their own Kraos people, but gave them 20 elephants and a letter of recommendation which guaranteed them an audience with the king of Laos.
The flight
Four months later, after a long and arduous journey, they finally arrived in the capital of Laos, which Shelly calls “Kjang-Kjang” in her diary. They encountered 30-40 Kraos tribesmen along the way, but were unable to approach any of them.
Armed with the letter, they went to meet the king, who agreed to leave a party of soldiers to escort them, as the endless swamps of the forests of Laos were extremely dangerous to those unfamiliar with them.
Krao was announced to be both human and ape. The missing link.
And it was during this mission that Krao and his parents were captured, literally kidnapped.
The group returned to the capital during the six-week march to the capital, Krao’s father contracted cholera and died.
When they reached “Kjang-Kjang#, the King of Siam adamantly refused for Bock and Shelly to take the mothers out of the country. However, he finally agreed that they could take Krao, but his mother should stay behind.
However, he made it a condition that Farinin adopt Krao and take good care of her.
So the friends took little Krao, only five years old, to London and Farini adopted her, as Bock and Shelly had promised. She was then called Krao Farini.
Leave with little Krao in your arms
Like a caged animal
But the adoption did not arise out of love for the child, but began to show it against significant expense. She was said to be Darwin’s “missing link”, an early specimen of man who was still part ape.
But Kreo was ready and learned English and German in an instant.
Farini has exhibited Krao throughout Europe and the United States. Year after year after year. Krao was actually held captive for decades.
She was well into her 40s when she was informed that her acting career was over.
Krao had little to no knowledge of normal life after being like any other circus animal from the age of five. She settled into an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, but was afraid to go out in public. When she needed it, she always covered her face with a veil to avoid people’s gaze.
She died of the flu at the age of fifty.
Krao with exhibition employees
Thug Life
It’s hard to imagine that life was hard for Kreo.
She was taken from her parents as a child and exhibited for decades in lands unknown, for the entertainment of the public.
She never received any education and probably little affection. However, it is difficult to say this, because in the photos, she seems close to her adoptive father, but it must be considered that they were promotional photos. She never stayed in one place long enough to make friends, and most people avoided her and made fun of her.
Krao was probably one of the loneliest women in the world. But no one knows anything about her thoughts, dreams and feelings because she never spoke to anyone and left no writings behind.
After his death, a letter was found in his apartment. He said her body should be burned until she was dead so no one could look at her.
